In episode 007 of the Angle Free IT podcast, I sat down to get a lesson in priorities and reality from IT Director Jeff Bowden. Jeff is very saged with his experience in technology and we met online in a few forums in which we both help people out with career questions. We talked about a lot of things, but my highlights were diversity and inclusion, Prioritization and the 80% rule that Jeff runs his shop with. I know that I am better for having met Jeff and having gained some of his wisdom, and I am sure you will be too.

00:00 Intro

03:00 Cyclical nature in computing.

07:00 How remote skills are key.

10:00 Degree vs No Degree thoughts.

13:00 Skills Jeff sees as declining and losing their relevance.

22:00 Customer Service is what we end up doing.

29:00 Interview skills for noobs.

31:00 how to clarify your priorities.

38:00 Branching out to determine who the important people in the company are – get outside of technology (mention workplace poker).

40:30 Who some of the most important people in the company are – it’s not who you think it is.

Sometimes, actually – let me rephrase that, a lot of times I know I want to talk to a guest but I have no idea what I’ll gain from them – a lot like UX. What is UX? User Experience within a piece of software. It’s something companies spend A LOT of time on, or don’t – and then fail. In this episode, we are lucky enough to snag a few cycles of brain time with Tiffany Eaton, UX designer, Medium Author, and upcoming grad/disruptor in the UX field. Tiffany tells us what the main challenges UX attempts to fix, and how the goals of a UX designer flow. Come join us for this great conversation – especially if you’ve ever used an app – so all of us, really.

3:00: What is UX?
4:00: Tiffany’s Interning experience, and talking about networking to get the first one.
7:00: Real world projects versus constraints within school – the shock of reality.
11:00: ‘Do I Belong’ game
12:00: Tools of the trade
17:45: Interview prep, and deep researching tips for prep from Tiffany
19:00: STAR method (this was new to Preston – it’s a cool method).https://www.vawizard.org/wiz-pdf/STAR_Method_Interviews.pdf
22:00: Tiffany educates me on why she feels design doesn’t have nearly as many curmudgeonly folks – it’s just their nature of designing new stuff all the time.
24:00: Millennials don’t care about work that doesn’t matter.
26:00: UX market entry tips. Design of everything book. side projects.
29:00: Deep dive into how UX and programmers actually work.
32:30: Tiffany’s mantra of ‘Not holding users accountable because they don’t think like we do’.
34:00: GAMING TIME! Tiffany’s game and arcade experience, and the specific game she is an aficionado about.

If you’d like to find Tiffany online, go find her online at the following locations:

Rick and I connected over a subreddit we both tend to hang out in – /r/ITCareerQuestions. As the owner of the most popular 5 posts, he clearly has a lot of wisdom to share. We talk about leveraging networking from even seemingly trivial things like online games to build your network. Networking is a HUGE part of Rick’s success – and it came from a source that may seem unconventional. We then went on to talk the evolution of the data center and what we think will be important skills-wise in a few years.

04:00: How Rick sees getting ahead – Networking With Humans. Even EVE Online can get you jobs – Rick’s proof.

12:00: Interview skills discussions.

24:00: Not boxing yourself in.

27:00: Career progression and figuring out – the journey is the destination.

30:00: We talk Hyperconvergence.

35:00: Talking CBT training.

40:00: Rick’s money is where his mouth is – Gaming wise! Check this out:

42:00: The ‘pick a practice’ quiz that Rick wrote.

We had a great time chatting, and I hope to meet him in person sometime – maybe I’ll shoot up to Calgary to ski!

Today, we sit down with Career Blogger Mike McRitchie. MikeMcRitchie works with people who’ve progressed in their technical or managerial career but who are feeling stuck.

He performs a “Career Checkup” where he helps them uncover their accomplishments, unique gifts and cool stories, and then performs a “Brand Alignment” – translating that into a résumé and LinkedIn profile that gets noticed.

00:00 Intro.

07:00 Skills discussions and where to build skills.

10:00 Networking Discussions in tech.

11:30 Preston ask the degree question.

18:30 Mike talks about pivoting into a new career, and how he’s helped people to do this.

21:00 The question that torpedo’s people in tech interviews ‘Tell Me About Yourself’- without bragging.

29:00 Pillar 6 – Being the dumbest person in the room, whenever possible.

Today we sit down with Luke Misgen, Director of Technology at zTrip, a part of Veolia. If you’ve been on a bus, cab, or train – you’ve probably been in a Veolia vehicle. We talk about innovation with users “Uber-resistant” to change (you’ll get my terrible pun when you listen…) and also leveraging your way up the career ladder.

00:30: We meet Luke Misgen, Director of Technology at zTrip.

08:00: People Skills vs. Just having a degree.

12:30: Meetups, and bypassing the HR ‘filter’ by knowing people.

15:30: Interview Pro-Tips.

27:00: How Siloing is helpful and hurtful, and what happens when you try and break it consciously.

Here in Episode 002, We talk to Nicolas Cole, Founder of Digital Press and top Quora writer about building your brand online, and killing your resume. Definitely a great listen – even if you’re not in IT. You can find the show on iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, RSS, and on my blog at https://AngleFreeIT.com

00:00: Intro

03:00: Nicolas Cole’s origin story and how gaming shaped his career.

05:00: Why people know who Cole is who he is – ‘I Am The Brand’.

07:45: What the hell is ‘building your brand’?

10:00: Anyone can start this.

11:15: “Everyday”.

14:15: Quora is brilliant for building your brand.

19:30: Sometimes, taking an opportunity is better than waiting for someone to tell you to do so.

24:00: Cole shares about how people don’t prep for interviews, and why you’ve already failed if you do this.

28:00: Cole reminds me to have compassion for people.

30:30: Talking about finding a mentor, demonstrating you want to, and burning ships.

38:00: Why providing solutions vs spotting problems gets you a job.

42:00: “For the Horde” vs my boring ass Paladin.

You can find Nicolas Cole at his website, Digital Press, Right Here (https://www.digitalpress.com/) and personal blog at (https://nicolascole.com).

You can also find the article that made me say “I gotta talk to this guy” here:(https://www.inc.com/nicolas-cole/resumes-are-dying-heres-what-you-need-instead.html)

Feel free to reach out to Cole if you know some C-Suite person who needs some help with media!

In this Episode, I talk with Julian Rodriguez, a friend from many years back. We talk through his expanding arsenal of certifications, currently including 5 CCIE’s, a CCDE, VCIX-NV, CISSP, Masters Degree, Undergrad and many others. I circle back through our decade of knowing each other, and I get to fanboy a little bit.

Welcome to The Angle Free IT podcast.

Hey, I’m glad you’re here! In this Episode, we explore all of the ins and outs of having a position within Tech throughout all different types of industries. The focus of what we do is “How is it that some people get so much further ahead in their careers, and how do I do that too?”. In this episode I explore the following:

00:00 : My motivation for starting the show.

05:20 : My Hypothesis.

08:45 : I’d Love your feedback.

10:00 : I’m ruining your misconceptions, but giving you the power to build them better.

I used to work with this guy. He was awesome. He was aggressive. Sometimes he was a flat-out jerk. But I looked at his continual successes and never seemed to grasp WHY he was successful and why I was significantly less successful than he was in our organization. I thought ‘Oh, he probably just learned how to do this in college’! Nope turns out he just worked at a college before here – never graduated from there.

Hmm.

Maybe he just knew this stuff innately?

Maybe he’s just better than me?

Turns out he had been reading some books and thought it would be clever if he could reuse a protocol name to be something that he thought would be a great way to remember. Typically SNMP stands for ‘Simple Network Management Protocol’, but not for my colleague. For him it stood for:

‘So Not My Problem’.

You see – as I think of it, he was laser and mono-focused on achieving his goals. And he didn’t let other peoples’ priorities get in-between him and the goal line. Sure there would be setbacks by being re-tasked by management, but as I thought about it – He didn’t fail to meet goals hardly ever. Honestly – thinking back – I can’t think of a project he was in charge of that slipped timelines.

6: Make sure you surround yourself with smarter people.

This pillar, #6 extends outside of work as well as inside. Make sure you are constantly surrounded by high-quality people. So how do you go about this at work? First off, say you’ve got like 10 people in your department. Find the 3 smartest people and see if you can be put on projects with them, or accompany them. Go eat lunch with them. See what things they’re reading and working on – are they things that would benefit you as well?

Now I’m not saying you need to BE them, just be around them. It’s a weird, but the universal truth that when you hang out with high performers, you perform better. When you hang out with the slackers, you start to let your productivity drop and work ‘dumber’ instead of ‘smarter’. For more information on slacker and Debbie Downers, see pillar 5, because 99.98% of the time they’re the ‘actively disengaged’ employees that are NOT the people you want to emulate in your career.

Maybe you work solo or have work with what I would off the cuff dub ‘the actively disengaged’ employee. Even President Camacho from Idiocracy understood this concept, so if he gets it – we should too! Make sure you are AROUND people you want to be around all the time, and act the way you want to be, or grow into career-wise.

Hey – I think you’re awesome and you should think you’re awesome too! But in reality, I had the fortunate event of marrying my wife Emily incredibly young. We were poor as church mice when we first started out and my wife picked up some sales training videos from a phenomenal trainer named Zig Ziglar. Zig had this amazing quote “We tend to become the people we hang around the most“. So here is my point about this pillar – be intentional with your relationships!

I never-ever-ever purposefully spend time with people who are toxically trying to bring me down.

If I did I would most likely be level 1 helpdesk-ticket-taker-mcgee.

I actively survey my colleagues to see who are the best – and hang out with them. I do this at clients and friends as well, and so should you!